Catherine Baird
Catherine Baird was one of the Irish Famine Orphans on the Lady Kennaway. Her native place was Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland; she was Roman Catholic; possessed a Bible and coul...

Earl Grey famine female orphan emigration scheme

Scope

The scope of this project is to identify the girls and the families of the orphan girls who were part of the Earl Grey emigration scheme to Australia between 1848 and 1850.

Explanation of Earl Grey’s Famine Orphan Scheme

The Orphan Emigration Scheme commenced in October 1848 and when it was wound up due to opposition from the Australian colonists in August 1850, 4,175 young girls had been sent from Irish workhouses to Australia. Many of the Irish workhouses participated in the scheme

A large number of those workhouse inmates were children. Many were orphans, or alternatively had been abandoned by fathers and mothers no longer able to feed them. While they remained in the local workhouse they were a charge on the landowners of the area where they previously resided. No wonder then that Earl Grey, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies received much support from Irish landlords for his Orphan Emigration Scheme under which young girls from the Irish workhouses were to be sent to Australia. The scheme was designed to fulfill the two-fold purpose of helping to resolve Australia’s chronic shortage of female labour, while at the same time reducing the serious overcrowding in Irish workhouses. Not only that but the Irish landlords who financed the workhouse system also hoped to reduce their own financial burden by transferring as many orphan girls as possible out of the workhouse system.

Sources :

References

Compiled initially from article by Trevor McClaughlin, 'Barefoot and Pregnant? Female Orphans who emigrated from Irish Workhouses to Australia, 1848-1850', in Familia: Ulster Genealogical Review, incorporating Ulster Genealogical & Historical Guild 'Newsletter', Vol.2, No.3, 1987, pp.31-36 and updated from shipping lists in New South Wales and South Australia With thanks to Trevor for his ongoing supply of information in our Facebook group The Earl Gray female orphans